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First time poster, long time lurker. Hubby and I moved from the East Coast to LV. We own our home back East. We have tenants in place.
We found a home in Henderson. We signed a 1 1/2 years lease. This house was a foreclosure that sat vacant for months. It was bought sight unseen by the landlord who lives in the midwest and has never seen the home. About a month after closing on the home, he put it up for rent.
Ever since we moved in the house at the beginning of August, there's been a problem after another. In our lease, we have the stipulation that we have to pay the $60 fee to call the home owner warranty service for major repairs. The yard was in bad shape. We called landscapers to mow it and plant a few things. Then, a shower upstairs leaked. $60 for the service. Then, the POA threatened the landlord with fines for stucco repairs which he did. Then he threatened us for fines because the POA found our yard was not aesthetically pleasing enough. At our expense, we replaced certain areas with sod.
Then, the pool equipment leaked. Another $60. Then the toilet upstairs leaked. Another $60. Then the water heater leaked. Another $60. This is since this August.
The problem is now that the leak upstairs stained the carpet (by the way, who puts carpet in a bathroom?). There is mold (with stalks!) growing upstairs. It smells so bad we can't use the upstairs at all (the bathroom is a jack-n-jill with two bedrooms). We have taken pictures. The plumber who fixed the leak believes there is subfloor damage under the carpet.
Now, we have emailed the landlord each and everytime we have called the warranty service and why we were calling. We have also taken pictures.
The water heater has to be replaced. Supposedly this will happen within the next day or so. We hardly have any hot water. The leak has seeped into the laundry room and mold is now growing in the grout. A storage area behind the wall where the water heater sits is flooded with standing water and smells horrible. We can't use it.
The landlord has told us he has contacted his handyman to take a look at the carpet and subfloor upstairs (this happened on Tuesday). We have yet to hear from the handyman. The home warranty will replace the water heater, but we haven't heard one word about repairs to the storage area or mold remediation.
We are landlords ourselves. Before we rented our home out, we checked to make sure there were no issues concerning habitability. We checked appliaces, HVAC and water heater. We checked our sprinkler system for leaks. It is not our tenants' responsibility to do our job as home owners.
We are at the end of our ropes here. We can't continue to take time off work to accommodate repairs that seemingly occur on a bimonthly basis. We are tired of paying $60 every two or three weeks for items that the landlord should maintain.
More importantly, one story of the house is unusable, thanks to the odor of the mold, notwithstanding the hazards of mold itself.
We have excellent credit, excellent financial standing, two secure and well-paying jobs and pay everything well before the due dates. Our rent payments are made automatically and often arrive 2-3 days before they are due. In other words, we are the ideal tenants.
We are strongly considering breaking our lease, offering the landlord a termination date effective on November 30 and wanting to get our pet and security deposits back. We are planning on submitting this to the landlord via e-mail (as it is our customary means of communication) and via certified mail, return receipt requested.
Since we are new to Nevada and are not familiar with the quirks, do you have any further additions or comments? We just don't feel comfortable enough that the house will be in good shape for us (or anyone) to live in it, at least not without doing some major work. It is a gorgeous house in a wonderful area. But obviously no maintenance or repair work was done before it was rented out.
We just don't know what to do. We also don't want to be paying an extra $60 to $120 each month on top of our rent and one day we would actually like to go upstairs...
If the house cannot be safely lived in, I see no reason that you cannot give the landlord a notice, by CERTIFIED mail, return receipt that he has 30 to make the home habitable or you will be moving. I would check this with an attorney and his consutation will probably be cheaper than the 60.00 you are putting out all of the time
Give him notice that the place in not habitable Certified. Give him a hard date when your rent runs out and then move.
You will likely have trouble getting your deposits back. If so small claims court. Document and photo everything. You will need them.
Your LLs position is pretty tough one to be in. Mold is messy stuff. In the walls you may be talking thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars. And it is probable that mold damage is not covered by his insurance.
The $60 is a nit. You agreed you are stuck...and it ain't all that bad if the stuff is actually getting fixed. After a while the frequency will drop to something more normal.
1) Then, a shower upstairs leaked. Then the toilet upstairs leaked. Then the water heater leaked.
2) The problem is now that the leak upstairs stained the carpet (by the way, who puts carpet in a bathroom?). There is mold (with stalks!) growing upstairs. It smells so bad we can't use the upstairs at all (the bathroom is a jack-n-jill with two bedrooms). We have taken pictures. The plumber who fixed the leak believes there is subfloor damage under the carpet.
3) At our expense, we replaced certain areas with sod.
[Numbers added to quote for clarity.]
1) From the the information in your post, it sounds like you let the leaks go. Why didn't you turn off the water? At the street if necessary? You're homeowners. You should know to do this. It's one thing if you come home from a vacation and discover that the shower has leaked and damaged the subfloor. But if you were living in the house at the time and you let it get that bad, well, that's your fault. The soaking-wet carpet should have been a dead giveaway. (FYI: The carpet was installed in the bathroom because the original buyers were cheap. Or they planned to rip the carpet out straightaway and install tile. But they ran out of money. Many banks won't finance a house with an unfinished floor.)
2) You live in the Mojave desert. We're known for being an abnormally dry place. You should have a) Sponged up as much of the water as possible with sponges, towels, sham-wows, a wet/dry vac, whatever; b) Opened the windows in the bathroom; c) Pulled the carpet if necessary) and d) placed a big box fan in the bathroom 24/7 to dry the area. Again, unless you came home from a two week vacation to discover a plumbing leak had damaged the upstairs and mold had already set in, that's your fault. You could have made some effort to mitigate the damage. Or you could have googled "water damage Las Vegas" and made a call to Serv-Pro.
3) I wouldn't have replaced the sod on my dime. Let the HOA continue to harass the landlord. He bought it sight unseen, as-is. It was his responsibility to make the property CC&R compliant.
Yes, the landlord should have at least flown out, hired a couple people, and made sure the house and it's fixtures were in good working order. That isn't just negligent. It's foolhardy.
But unless you're holding back relevant information from your post, your inaction borders on negligent as well. This is why I never buy rental property that I can't walk to from my house. That landlord is in for a WHOPPING bill. And from the sounds of it, you could have prevented much of that bill.
1) From the the information in your post, it sounds like you let the leaks go. Why didn't you turn off the water? At the street if necessary? You're homeowners. You should know to do this. It's one thing if you come home from a vacation and discover that the shower has leaked and damaged the subfloor. But if you were living in the house at the time and you let it get that bad, well, that's your fault. The soaking-wet carpet should have been a dead giveaway. (FYI: The carpet was installed in the bathroom because the original buyers were cheap. Or they planned to rip the carpet out straightaway and install tile. But they ran out of money. Many banks won't finance a house with an unfinished floor.)
2) You live in the Mojave desert. We're known for being an abnormally dry place. You should have a) Sponged up as much of the water as possible with sponges, towels, sham-wows, a wet/dry vac, whatever; b) Opened the windows in the bathroom; c) Pulled the carpet if necessary) and d) placed a big box fan in the bathroom 24/7 to dry the area. Again, unless you came home from a two week vacation to discover a plumbing leak had damaged the upstairs and mold had already set in, that's your fault. You could have made some effort to mitigate the damage. Or you could have googled "water damage Las Vegas" and made a call to Serv-Pro.
The initial leak was from a faucet in the tub upstairs. We noticed it the actual day we moved in. We called the warranty service and it got replaced. There was no damage there. The leak in the toilet happened in the upstairs bathroom. The house is two stories with the master bedroom and bath downstairs. The upstairs bath and two bedrooms are not used unless guests are staying with us. Since it's just the two of us, we have no reason to go upstairs and use that toilet. We knew something was wrong when we began smelling the stench. The leak was caused by the hose connecting to the tank. That bathroom does not have a window, unfortunately. By the way, the bathroom was not flooded. The leak was small enough to stain around the toilet. The carpet is a pale beige. The only way you can see water is if the water has discolored to such an extent that it becomes yellow/green against the beige. The carpet is not drenched in water, but you can see the discoloration that results from water leaking over time. The mold has grown around the toilet area, where it is difficult to see without kneeling down, towards the wall and trim. It is the opinion of the plumber that the hose was not installed properly and it was slowly leaking for a very long time. It would have been unnoticeable to the naked eye and on the carpet. If we had not noticed the smell, chances are we would have never noticed the leak, although we would have seen the discoloration in the carpet at some point.
As to the water heater, the unit is over 15 years old. Water heaters need to be flushed and drained every year to avoid calcium deposits. If not, calcium sediments deposit on the heating element. Over time, it takes longer to heat water and over time the unit will leak. If the unit is maintained properly, it will last longer. In this case, the unit was not maintained properly. Since we've only been there since August, I don't think it would be unreasonable for us to expect that our water heater actually works, wouldn't it? The home warranty people assure us it will be replaced (of course, we don't know when). We are ok taking lukewarm showers for now but soon our patience will run out. But no mention has been made as to the water damage caused to the storage space and the moldy grout.
Again, our duties as a tenant don't include working on neglected structural or plumbing issues that are not due to our malfeasance. It also seems rather unreasonable for us to do the kind of due diligence that the landlord should have done. I would hope for his sake that he had an inspection done on the house prior to plunking down the cash. If so, an honest inspector would have revealed the water heater and long-standing leak issues - all of those were there well before we moved in. Lastly, we have paid so far nearly $200 for the various calls we have made. We've had to accommodate our work schedules for the repairs. We've had to remove furniture from the upstairs bedroom due to the stench.
A tenant does not expect to be calling home warranty every two weeks. It is not a problem for us to pay $60 when things go awry from time to time. However, since August we've had a major issue (we are responsible for repairs less than $60) arise every two or three weeks. In this case, the $60 a pop becomes an effective rent increase.
Oh, and thanks for reminding us we live in the desert. We wouldn't have known otherwise.
im going to agree with scoop on this one... plus if the landlord knows your gold, when you move out and break the lease, you will be sued.... you should be putting the rent into escrow...look up nevada tenants rights... Nevada is VERY VERY Landlord friendly.
First of all, I am in complete agreement that the landlord SHOULD have done all of this. But the second -- and I mean the literal second you suspected plumbing problems -- you should have inspected every fixture in the house. We don't have any problems and we STILL open up every sink cabinet and check the fittings, and check the areas around the toilets for any kind of leaking on a regular basis. It's just common sense. And we'd do it if we were renting, too. It might not be spelled out in the lease. But that's just part of being a good tenant as far as I'm concerned.
You also could have easily opened the access hatch at the street and noticed that your water meter was spinning when no water was being used. That should have been done when the water was turned on initially. If you had the water turned on, that's something you should have done. Again, common sense. And if you suspected plumbing problems, the first action is to shut off the water and assess damage. Not, make a phone call to a warranty company and get the ball rolling for someone to come look at the problem in the near future.
If I were "Judge Scoop" I would certainly rule against the landlord for being hopelessly foolhardy with his investment. But that doesn't mean that you couldn't have done more to keep this situation from getting as bad as it did. Just because you have the home warranty plan, doesn't mean you can't check things on your own.
If it was YOUR property, you would certainly have done everything I suggested. Because you did so for the property that you're currently renting out so you can live here.
So, sure, break your lease and leave. It is unhealthy and unwise to live in a moldy house. But I think you should have done more to make sure you didn't end up living in a moldy house in the first place. How hard is it to look at a water meter? The slightest leak will cause it to spin.
If nothing else, this is a useful cautionary tale for prospective landlords. Tenants don't have to be malicious. Not knowing what to do (or knowing and not acting because "this isn't our problem") can lead to thousands upon thousands of dollars in damages. And it might not be covered by homeowner's insurance. We had to pay extra for mold damage coverage. Not everyone thinks to do that in the desert.
Thanks to all who responded and/or provided advice. Scoop, the moment we noted the stench and saw what was going on upstairs, we thought the wax seal was broken. We immediately shut off the water and, with a flashlight, went downstairs to see if any water had seeped to the ceiling below (it had not).
According to the plumber, the leak started very slowly and would have not been noticed for a very long time since we were the first tenants and occupants in over a year. Eventually, the leak got worse as the seal in the hose wore off, and that is when we noticed and took action. It's not the kind of leak that would have made an impact on the water bills, especially since we have only 2 months to compare and contrast. Moreover, since the day we moved in, we informed the landlord that we believed the sprinkler system has leaks. Unfortunately, these are not covered by his home warranty. He has yet to repair these leaks. So, any other variation in water bills or water meter spin rates would probably go unnoticed in light of the known issue with the sprinkler system. The sprinkler system is underground and neither one of us is able or skilled to repair it. It does not have a separate water shut off valve that we've seen. We certainly would be ok to have it repaired and then taken out of the rent, but the landlord is not the type who wants us to repair things ourselves (see more below).
As for the water heater, again, we can't keep the water shut off because we occasionally take showers and wash clothes (though oftentimes not with hot water at all) or dishes. We have started to take fewer showers, however, to minimize the leaks and also because the water just isn't that warm (we do use lots of deodorants and dry shampoo so our coworkers won't have to suffer).
Our lease requires us to be responsible for any repair below $60. If any repair is more than $60, our landlord expects us to call the home warranty service immediately. This is an agreement we had. It's not like we don't want to do some due diligence on our own; it's that the landlord has expressly conveyed to us that he wants us to call the warranty service as soon as a major issue is detected.
For instance, when we moved in and we noticed that the tub faucet upstairs had been leaking, we went to Lowe's where we got a primer on replacing the part of the faucet (that weird valve) and fixing it ourselves. We communicated with the landlord and proposed to do the work ourselves, as we've done in the past in our home. The landlord did not approve and asked us to call the home warranty service. Now, the part alone was $85 so it would have qualified as an expense greater than $60 (the cost of a service call from the home warranty). It would have been done easily and quickly if we had done it ourselves. But that was not what the landlord wanted.
In other words, he doesn't like it when the tenants do repairs for him. Which is why every time we notice something is wrong we always let him know and we always call the home warranty. He has made it clear that unless something is less than $60 in repairs, he wants us to call the service right away and to notify him of the problem.
Last night, we discussed our course of action and decided to once again email the pictures of the problem areas - mold and carpet upstairs toilet, standing water near/around water heater, moldy grout on tile affected by water heater - and put the ball in the landlord's court to see (1) if he truly intends to repair those issues (not simply cover them up), and (2) how reasonably soon we can expect the repairs (if it's anything like the sprinkler system it will take a while).
An additional question. We have purchased a mold test kit from Lowe's. It consists of 9 test strips that we then send in to a lab for testing. Would this be a good idea to have done?
We have wiped out with bleach the mold that was beginning to grow on the trim behind the toilet. However, until the landlord's handyman can come and pull the carpet up, we cannot touch the carpet, so there's plenty that we can grab on the strip.
However, we still have pictures of everything (which we would include in our latest and greatest email as outlined above).
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so our coworkers won't have to suffer).
